---
title: Psalms 49:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-49-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-49-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Psalms 49:15
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Psalms 49:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "But God will redeem me from the power of the Grave, For he will take hold of me. (Selah)"

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads "But God will redeem me from the power of the Grave" as the psalmist's confidence in resurrection from the unconscious state of death — "the Grave" representing the common grave of mankind, not a place of conscious post-mortem existence. The verse fits the JW framework of soul sleep: death is unconscious non-existence, and God's redemption from the Grave is the future resurrection.

## Protestant Usage

Pair Psalm 49:7 with v. 15 to see the psalm's full argument: no human can redeem himself or another (v. 7), but God can — and will — redeem the psalmist from the power of Sheol (v. 15). Sheol in Hebrew is more than the physical grave; it is the realm of the dead with relational and existential dimensions that the New Testament unfolds (Luke 16:23, Hebrews 11:13-16). The psalm sets up the syllogism the New Testament completes: no human can pay the redemption price, God can, Jesus did, therefore Jesus is God. The "Grave" rendering flattens the Sheol dimension that the New Testament's intermediate-state testimony unfolds (Luke 16:22-23, the rich man and Lazarus).

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders šeʾôl as "the Grave" (capitalised) rather than "Sheol." The systematic NWT pattern collapses the Hebrew Sheol and Greek Hadēs into a single category — physical burial — which serves the JW doctrine of soul sleep. Standard English translations transliterate "Sheol" precisely because the term names the realm of the dead with theological depth beyond mere burial: a place of conscious existence between death and resurrection (Luke 16:22-23 in the rich man and Lazarus parable). The "Grave" rendering flattens that theological category and makes the soul-sleep reading appear textually mandated when the underlying Hebrew supports conscious-intermediate-state readings as well.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [No Man Can Redeem — But Jesus Did](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ransom-who-can-redeem.md) — Psalm 49:7-9, 15 / Hebrews 9:12-14 / Acts 20:28 [Salvation]
- [Hadēs Is Not the Grave](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hades-the-grave-rendering.md) — Luke 16:23 / Revelation 1:18 — The NWT Collapses Two Greek Words Into One [NWT Translation]